A pioneer of photography in India, John Burke began working in Peshwar, Northern India, as an assistant to the commercial photographer William Baker. Baker took up photography on retiring from the British Army in 1861 and Burke himself had worked as an apothecary in the Royal Artillery. When Baker stopped working in 1873 Burke carried on, recording the evolution of the Indian Raj in the late nineteenth century. Burke accompanied the British army on its advance into Afghanistan during the Second Afghan War of 1878-1879.

The photograph was published in the album 'The Afghan War, Attogk to Jellalabad, Gandamak and Surkhab'. John Burke recorded the evolution of British India in the late 19th Century, and accompanied the British Indian army on its advance into Afghanistan during the Second Afghan War of 1878-1879.